Tuesday, 28 July 2015

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has expressed strong support for
President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to probe the immediate past
federal government, saying the revelations of mind-boggling corruption
that are just beginning to emerge have made such a probe imperative.
”Some people have insinuated that the Buhari Administration should
ignore the massive looting of our patrimony and move on. We say no
responsible government can afford to do that, because it will amount to
endorsing corruption and impunity,” the party said in a statement issued
in Abuja on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed.
It said in the oil sector alone, billions of dollars have been
skimmed off by pathologically-corrupt public officials, wondering how
the government of the day can meet its obligations to the citizens if it
refuses to recover the huge funds taken away by thieving officials
”It is an irony that those who are suggesting that the Buhari
Administration should turn a blind eye to the incomprehensible looting
are the same ones accusing the government of not doing anything. It is
even a cruel irony that the same party that presided over what is fast
emerging as the worst governance in the history of our country is the
same one that is daily bad-mouthing an Administration that is cleaning
up its mess,” APC said.
The party said even if all the acts of corruption that were
perpetrated during the tenure of the last Administration are limited to
what is now in the public domain, it is still absolutely exigent for the
Buhari Administration to do all it can to bring the perpetrators to
book and recover the looted funds.
”Where does one start from? Is it the fact that the NNPC failed to
remit 3.8 trillion Naira to the Federation Account or the mind-blowing
stealing of 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day? Is it the fact that
the NNPC itself does not know how many bank accounts it had or into
which ones the payments for Nigerian crude are made? Could anyone have
imagined that a government minister would steal the unprecedentedly-huge
amount of 6 billion US dollars of public funds as being alleged?
”How does any sane person rationalize the fact that 1 billion dollars
was unilaterally and illegally withdrawn from the Excess Crude Account
just because, as the immediate past Minister of Finance has disclosed,
the President ordered the withdrawal? What about the billions of Naira
waivers recklessly approved to dubious importers by the Jonathan
administration?
”Is it not clear now that the stealing and the profligacy – more than
anything else, including the fall in oil price – helped to drastically
reduce the monthly allocation from the Federation Account from about 800
billion Naira to about 400 billion Naira, thus pauperizing the states
and the local governments, and by extension the citizenry?
”Against the background of the stunning revelations, what message
will any government be sending to its citizens and indeed the global
community by looking the other way, when it could still recover some of
the looted funds for the benefit of the people? This is why we are
supporting the Buhari Administration’s probe decision, and calling on
all Nigerians to support ongoing efforts to get to the root of the
matter,” it said.
APC said it is now clear that the Jonathan Administration cleverly
delayed giving the then incoming Buhari government the handover note so
as to avoid being asked critical questions pertaining to the
unprecedented looting under its watch.